A lot of interesting and informative blogs, newsletters, podcasts, videos, etc. are available on the subject of customer success. We have put together a list of the top 10 customer success books to help understand and learn more about this subject through the perspective of the thought leaders and experts in this field.

#1 HYPERGROWTH

By David Cancel

This is a short read, but it’s jam-packed with strategies and frameworks to help companies to achieve hyper-growth through customer success. The overarching theme in this book is that a focus on current customers is necessary to drive success.

#2 The Trusted Advisor

by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford

This customer success book details five steps to build a trust-based relationship. It is especially useful for customer success managers who act as a part of their customers’ team, looking to build and maintain trust.

#3 Chief Customer Officer 2.0: How to Build Your Customer-Driven Growth Engine

by Jeanne Bliss

This is a must-read for folks in customer success, and truly any person in a business that deals with customers. Jeanne Bliss incorporates executive stories and personal narratives to remind us of just how important our customers are through this customer success book!

#4 The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty

by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, Rick DeLisi

This customer success book explains that loyalty is driven by how well a company delivers on its basic promises and solves day-to-day problems, not on how spectacular its service experience might be. Most customers don’t want to be “wowed”; they want an effortless experience. 

#5 Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company’s Future

by Tien Tzuo, Gabe Weisert

As CEO of the world’s largest subscription management platform, Tien Tzuo has helped hundreds of companies transition from relying on individual sales to building customer-centric, recurring-revenue businesses. If there’s one customer success book that will have you feeling empowered, it’s this one!

#6 Farm Don’t Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success

by Guy Nirpaz, Fernando Pizarro

A good ‘customer success fundamentals’ book, this is a great go-to for all CSMs! The authors really get down to the nitty-gritty of customer success as a theory and offer pragmatic recommendations for implementing a customer success strategy.

#7 The Startup’s Guide to Customer Success

by Jennifer Chiang

This book shows you how to create a customer success team for your business irrespective of resources and business size. A great CS resource that comes with case studies, examples, and a framework that any business can use and excel.

#8 Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue 

by Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, Lincoln Murphy, Maria Martinez

Customer success teams are being created in companies to quarterback the customer lifecycle and drive adoption, renewals, up-sell, and advocacy. This book is the one-of-a-kind guide that shows you how to make Customer Success work in your company.

#9 From Impossible To Inevitable

by Aaron Ross, Jason Lemkin

This book is chock full of great advice for companies looking to grow exponentially despite the many pitfalls that plague the SaaS industry. While primarily focused on sales, Ross and Lemkin’s “7 Ingredients for Hyper-Growth,” from nailing your niche to defining your destiny, is essentially a checklist that customer success teams can use to better understand their place in company growth.

#10 The Road to Success – How to Scale Customer Success Efficiently

by Anshi Bhadoria

FREE eBook: As organizations enter growth mode, they need to scale a customer success team and how to manage the growing complexity of these relationships. This book is a great guide on how to reach customers across multiple channels or touchpoints, and to forge deeper relationships with them.

Read through these customer success books and let us know if you have any other suggested reads that didn’t make it to this list.

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